Miss Khan, a 26-year-old film and media studies graduate from Ilford, East London, was killed on her first day as an assistant director on the set of Gustad’s film Bombay Central at Mahalaxmi station in south Mumbai.

She was hit by a train while standing on the busy number four railway line at the station, waiting to give actors their cues. Railway officials said the director only had permission to film on the much quieter number one line.

“It’s a very special film for me for many reasons. This is my tribute to the 1970s that was the greatest retro era. I was kicked with the idea because I’m entering the time in cinema where my father-in-law was a superstar.”

* Some brave soul got a quote from Prakash Raaj's ex-wife about his upcoming marriage.

Prakash Raj’s ex-wife Lalitha Kumari has said that she is aware of his relationship with choreographer Pony Varma. Speaking further on this issue, she said that she wishes that Prakash remains happy with Pony forever.

* Divya Dutta gives an interview - apparently she is playing gay in an upcoming film called Monica.

* Ranbir Kapoor is atttempting to make Rajneeti seem youth-friendly by being upbeat at press events.

Says the friend, "He knows Raajneeti is poles apart from Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani. But he wants the audience to know it's a very entertaining and watch-able drama. Ranbir's strategy sometimes goes against Prakash Jha's sales-pitch. The director has been trying to focus on the political content rather than the stars. Ranbir's antics during the recent press conferences (hiding from TV cameras behind Katrina, sketching funny pics during a press conference, telling the curious media humorous anecdotes about Raajneeti) countermand the director's attempts to highlight the theme of present-day politics."

Maybe he can keep everyone distracted from the film's problems with the censor board.

* Monday morning quarterbacking of Kites is still going on - some think it failed to take off in India because of the language issues.

Ravi Niranjan, a marketing professional, too feels that it’s almost impossible for him to watch a film with subtitles.

“It’s just so distracting. I keep looking at the subtitles, forgetting about the movie I’m supposed to be watching. I would definitely not like to watch a mainstream Bollywood film with Hrithik Roshan in the lead with English subtitles. Why should I?” he asks.

That actually is probably a valid argument - if you are not used to watching a subtitled film, then it can be distracting. Especially if the subtitles are in English and it's not your first language. They probably should have done an entirely dubbed Hindi version for the home market.

Gopal Bhartiya confirmed the news and said, “I am in a state of shock. I am just back from Mumbai where I met the CEO of Big Pictures (co-producer) Kamal Gyanchandani and Rakesh Roshan. I clearly told them that what they did is not right. When most people in Bihar do not understand English, how are they supposed to understand Spanish? I will file a case against them. "

Well, at least Kites has won them some new fans in North America where it has done moderately well. That is more than can be said for Prince of Perisa - which has tanked in the non-US markets. Possibly because Jake Gyllenhaal speaks in the worst British accent ever - along with him not being, you know, even remotely PERSIAN looking. It's an interesting day when Rakesh Roshan is more committed to casting with an eye towards reality than Hollywood is.

And finally! I just started watching Jimmy Fallon, after my favorite magazine (Entertainment Weekly!) gave him a nice plug and I have to say... Monday's show turned out to be pretty funny. He had on a Pakistani stand-up comedian!

Check out Kumail Nanjiani!

I can't decide if my favorite part is the audience not really getting that Urdu and Arabic are different languages or when he discusses the usual habits of ghosts.

9 comments:

I think Ranbir is one of the actors I like offscreen as well as off, which is pretty rare for me. :-) BTW, I'm not surprised Prince of Persia tanked. It looks totally lame and, like you said, that's not even taking the whitewashing into account.

I love the "I will file a case against them" thing. Doesn't it seem that literally everyone 'files a case' against anyone they're even slightly annoyed by? No wonder the Indian court system is so backed up!

I definitely understand about the subtitles being distracting; I'm used to them on foreign films but once went to see Pride and Prejudice in theatres and someone in the audience was deaf, so they put the subtitles up for that person, and it was like my eyes were just glued to the subtitles--I barely looked up at the screen at all.

I was at a videogame store the other day and someone had left the PoP guidebook (is that what it's called? The book that comes with the game with all the pics and instructions? I'm hopeless about this stuff) on the counter and the graphics in that game were *so* gorgeous. I almost think if they had just done a completely computer animated version of the film it would have been better received.

First, Kites looses the portion of the audience that has a problem reading subs and watching scenes at the same time. Then, they loose another portion of the remaining audience by putting English subtitles for Spanish dialogue?! No wonder it's not a hit! It doesn’t take a genius to realize that there should have been Hindi subtitles for English and Spanish dialogs.

(You know I actually have the opposite problem. I'm so used to watching TV with my hearing-impaired grandmother, that I miss the subtitles/closed-captioning when they’re not there.)

I get the feeling that people really wanted "kites" to fail, as it seemed very ambitious and overly hyped.The fact is that it didn't really tank, it made decent receipts, it just didn't set the box office ablaze as the Roshans hoped it might.

This fixation that everyone has with the first week take does not mean the film is doomed - not every movie is "spiderman", some films have a steady build up that can add to revenue later.

Must confess i m a new reader of ur blog. I saw Kites on the very Friday it was released. I didn't love it, but neither did i hate it. there were some good moments and the lead pairs r probably two of cinemas most photogenic couple. Kangana is wasted. But its a Mills 7 Boon story, and an MB can make for good interludes not a full plot. BTW...there is a blogging contest going on. Winners get to go to colombo and see the IIFA awards live. http://iifablog.com/iifa-insider-blogging-contest/